1916 Central Shaneville Presidential election

1916 Central Shanevlle presidential Election

12 October 1916 (1916-10-12)
180 seats in the Central Shaneville Parliament (CSP) 91 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	68%
First party Second party   Leader Ben Murker Henry Hite Party Liberal Party Conservative Leader since August 1916 October 1911 Leader's seat New Helvetia Southern Bay Last election 95,704 (38.6%) 128,420 (52.3%) Seats before 53 (68) 112 Seats won 107 73 Seat change +39 -39 FPTP vote 137,853 128,251 Percentage 51.5% 48.5% Swing -
President of Central Shaneville before election Henry Hite Conservative President of Central Shaneville Ben Murker Liberal

The 1916 Central Shaneville Presidential election was held on the 12 October 1916, Henry Hind and the Conservative Party were the incumbent president and party respectively, this election also saw only 2 parties run for the presidency with Hite declaring that he would run for a second term all the way in 1914, the early buildup to the election saw the dissolvement of the Anti-Confederation Party following their leader's death at a public demonstration weeks after the 1912 election, parliament decided to give the empty 15 seats to the Liberals in early 1913.

Ben Murker and the Liberal Party would win the election becoming the 2nd president of Central Shaneville in a very close election.

Pre-election, the Liberal Party claimed that whilst many saw Hite's first term as President in a successful way he had been slow to enact change on Central Shaneville which was developing in a rapid way (though not enough to justify changing the electoral districts.)

In August, two months before the election, Jack Dunn (former Liberal party leader) was replaced with Ben Murker who had been a outspoken critic of the Conservative government, he also had formed his own vigilante group in response to the government's failure to deal with crime however this was disbanded shortly after the government found out, Murker was cleared of any wrong doing following the investigation, Murker chose his seat as the New Helvetia district in a hope the large amount of American and European immigrants in that region can help boost the Liberal Party's numbers.

The campaigns of both Hite and Murker were focused on addressing Central Shaneville's neutrality during what would soon be called World War 1 with both Hite and Murker saying that there was no need for the island nation to get involved, whilst a non-aligned country would be seen as a safe pair of hands to the people and would keep the established parliament and political structure together, neither candidate offered any plan to deal with the Central Powers if things got too close to home, luckily the war never got to Central Shaneville shores.

Stories of the Election

Before the election, Parliament predicted a Liberal majority ever since they absorbed the defunct Anti-Confederate seats, the Conservative Party saw this as an opportunity to challenge the legitimacy of these seats, as did their leader Henry Hite, the Conservatives were seen as petty by the Liberals for questioning the legitimacy of their newly absorbed seats, they started calling the members during their campaign "the usurpers."

The second debate of the campaign ended in a draw, which was the first time in Central Shaneville history a debate ended in a draw.

The Liberals campaign trail saw them get endorsed by companies because of their economy promises, the key promise was to heavily expand the mining industry to create more jobs and encourage people to go back to the rural areas.

Exit Poll

The exit poll predicted a narrow Liberal majority win with 103 seats with the Conservatives predicted to win only 77 seats.

Parties		Seats	Change
	Liberal Party	103	-
	Conservative Party	77	-
LIBERAL PARTY WINS A MAJORITY GOVERNMENT

Results

After all electoral districts had been declared, the results were:

Party		Leader	MLs			Votes
				Of total			Of total
Liberal Party		Ben Murker	107	60.5%	107 / 180	xxx	51.5%'	51.5%
Conservative Party		Henry Hite (Incumbent)	73	40.5%	73 / 180	xxx	48.0%	48.5%

Voting summary

Popular vote Liberal Party   51.5% Conservative Party   48.5%

Aftermath

The aftermath of the 1916 election sees Ben Murker sworn in the day after his election win, his supporters in the senate were almost all new faces with the exception of 3 sitting senators who supported Merkur, as for the Conservatives: Henry Hite would continue as the only sitting politician from the ruling party that served with him during his first term as many Conservative party members started a vote of no-confidence in an attempt to get rid of Hite after he lost his presidency to Murker but it was unsuccessful.

Ben Murker's first term as the 2nd President of Central Shaneville (the first for a Liberal president) is seen by historians as successful, any shadow of the Confederacy controversy is long gone and Murker built an alliance with the independents, allowing them to be involved in Central Shaneville politics for the first time.